While Saha’s operations have been steadily rolling on throughout the ongoing pandemic, one big piece has been missing – the presence of our US-based teammates! Executive Director and Co-Founder Kate Cincotta, Deputy Director Kathryn Padgett, and consultant Elise Willer all visited Ghana for the first time in two years! Before the pandemic, it had never been more than a few months between their trips.
Since they’d last visited, Saha’s geographic reach has expanded dramatically. Kate visited the new Kete-Krachi office and our newest communities in that region. The implementation team was working out of in Kete-Krachi at the time, so she was also able to visit and have a little bit of fun with that team in beautiful Lake Volta. Kate loved meeting new entrepreneurs in the Krachi communities, and seeing a recently promoted manager, Aisha, mentoring Bernice who is new to Saha this year. Another highlight for Kate was visiting two older Saha communities, Djelo and Vogyili, and chatting with experienced entrepreneurs as they sold water at their businesses.
Kathryn visited Saha’s Buipe office with R&D Supervisor Wahab to launch a new project on water pricing in several villages in the region (more info coming soon – watch this space!). She joined Customer Care teammates Alhassan and Latifa in the field visiting several of our newest communities, and saw how the business works in these river communities – different than the original dugout model, but still working well! She also visited new villages in the Bimbilla/Kpandai region, and got to learn a whole new set of greetings in a new language!
All our newest front-line teammates met together in the Salaga office for two days of workshops led by communications expert and behavior change consultant Elise Willer. Elise notes, “During my visit, I noted, what can only be described as, a positive, unstoppable energy. Over the past two years, even while facing obvious challenges, Saha’s commitment to building trust, providing opportunities for regular growth/learning and working as a team has resulted in an impressive number of leaders. During my recent trip, I had the distinct pleasure of working with these leaders as they continue to build their skills!”